5,000 Space Shuttle Jobs to Be Cut In Next Five Years, NASA Reports

Published: January 8, 1992

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Jan. 7—
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to eliminate 5,000 space shuttle jobs over five years so it can afford such ambitious projects as the building of a lunar base and a flight to Mars.

"All of those things cost money, and there aren't going to be many new bucks for NASA to work with," Robert Crippen, the new director of the Kennedy Space Center here, said Monday in a televised address to workers. "Consequently, we need to be able to reduce programs like the shuttle, but do it safely so that we can do these other exciting things."

Mr. Crippen, a former astronaut, said budget cuts would result in the loss of about 20 percent of the 25,000 shuttle jobs nationwide. Much of that reduction will be achieved through attrition, he said, but there will also be layoffs. Last fall, the Kennedy center laid off 400 shuttle workers.

Other savings will be achieved by cutting some of the redundant safety procedures added to the shuttle system after the Challenger explosion that killed seven astronauts in 1986. Mr. Crippen said the elimination that would not jeopardize safety.

"Safety is our No. 1 concern and will remain so," he told workers.

Mr. Crippen said he expected the current number of workers at the Kennedy center itself, 20,000, to remain stable over the next several years. This will be possible because some employees will be transferred from shuttle work to other space programs.

Of NASA's $14.3 billion budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, nearly $2.7 billion is for shuttle operations. The budget for the shuttle last year was $2.8 billion.

Shuttle managers have been ordered to reduce spending 3 percent a year over the next five years.

"It is NASA's ambition, and rightfully so, to be doing other exciting things and exploring new horizons," Mr. Crippen said. "That includes building the space station Freedom. It includes going back to the moon and erecting a lunar base and then sending people on to Mars."

Mr. Crippen, the pilot of the first shuttle flight in 1981, took over as director of the Kennedy center on Jan. 1. He replaced Forrest McCartney, who stepped down after five years.

The shuttle Discovery is scheduled to lift off about Jan. 22 on the first of eight shuttle missions planned for 1992 at a cost of $330 million each.